The invention relates to the field of spatialized audio conferences.
An audio conference consists in bringing people into contact via their audio terminals. The audio streams may for example be according to the TCP/IP protocol, in which case it is referred to as ‘voice over IP’. The invention is not of course limited to a particular network. For example, the audio conference may be implemented with an integrated services digital network (ISDN).
Terminals in conference mode may, for example, communicate according to a centralized mode, thanks to an MCU (Multipoint Control Unit) conference bridge that centralizes the audio streams before mixing them and distributing them appropriately. Alternatively, the terminals may communicate by adopting a ‘multicast’ mode, in which each audio stream is characterized by a source address and by a group address, or else by adopting a distributed mode using multiple point-to-point links. Generally speaking, the invention is not limited by the architecture implemented.
It is known for a given conference participant, in this context referred to as listener, to virtually spatialize the voices of the other conference participants, referred to as speakers, in a 3D audio virtual space in order to recreate the illusion of a real conversation. The listener thus has the impression that the voice of each speaker is coming from a particular position in space. The spatialization of the voices contributes to improving the intelligibility, the listening comfort, the understanding and the recognition of the speakers.
Depending on the architecture adopted, the spatialization may take place either over a bridge, in particular in centralized mode, or over the terminal, in particular in multicast and distributed modes.
The article by Mark Chignell, Ryan Kilgore and Paul Smith, “Spatialized Audioconferencing: What are the Benefits?”, 2003 Conference of the Centre for Advanced Studies on Collaborative Research, describes an application for setting up spatialized audio conferences over IP networks that enables the conference participants to virtually position the various speakers for their convenience. A positioning interface needs to be provided for each participant. In addition, the participants have to carry out manual operations in order to position the various speakers.